Glassblowing was one of the most fun things I’ve done so far in my gap year. We went to Half Moon Bay Glass near the beach. I made two glass ornaments and my mom made a pumpkin.

First, I scooped up some molten glass in the burning hot 2000 degree oven. When you take it out, it’s bright fiery orange and drippy. Then I heated it up for about a minute. When you have melted glass on the blow pole, you have to keep turning it so the glass stays centered. I then took it to a little bowl and put flakes of red glass into it because I wanted my first ornament to be red. After, I melted the red flakes into the glass. Next I shaped the glass into a short ball by rolling it on a metal table and then swinging it so the melted glass would come to the end of the stick. Then I took it to a bench and while turning it to keep the glass centered, I blew very hard through the stick to make a large bubble in the glass. It felt like blowing on your thumb! I heated it up some more and blew some more. The glass expanded into a little hollow bubble that got got bigger with every breath. The instructor and I made a line on the glass with a metal stick to  make it easier to break the glass ball off. Finally, I heated it up one more time. I took it to a table with a pad on it. Then with quick tap of a little stick, the glass ball fell off and into the padding. The instructor took a smaller piece of glass and made a little hook for an ornament.

I loved glassblowing so much that I hope I get to do it many more times.